Letter: Fairness at issue in wine sales

An interesting point has been ignored in coverage of the efforts to make wine sales legal in grocery stores in Tennessee (March 13 article, "Tennessee liquor stores feel squeezed by grocers' push to sell wine"). We who sell wine now are limited by the law to one license and one location. Had this not been the case for decades in Tennessee, there would be multiple-license chains of wine and liquor stores who would be better able to compete against the grocery chains. I don't speak for all wine and liquor store owners, but I see this issue as a question of fundamental fairness and equal treatment by the law.

How would the grocers quoted in your coverage of this issue feel about being allowed only one location while their competitors are allowed as many as they choose? I don't fear competition, but is a level playing field too much to ask? Whatever limitations liquor stores have in our ability to compete against out-of-state grocery chains are not self-imposed; the state has and continues to limit our ability to expand beyond one location.

This requirement has not been controversial until recently, as it applied equally to every wine and liquor retailer. It would not apply to Kroger and Walmart. What is at stake here are locally owned mom-and-pop businesses being forced to compete against big-box retailers while wearing handcuffs.